Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute and Aeropract company have signed an agreement on cooperation. The first joint project will be the creation of an airplane by students.
«The signing of the cooperation agreement is another important step for the university, as the company is a national leader in the production of small aircraft, which it exports to many countries around the world. Today we are jointly creating a design center on the territory of the university. It will attract many talented students, become future Sikorsky and Korolev and further promote the aviation direction, which was traditional for the university», – comments Mikhailo Zgurovsky, Rector of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute.
"Aeropract is one of the world's leading companies producing light aircraft. It manufactures about 100 single and two-seat aircraft per year. Now Aeropract specialists will transfer their knowledge and experience to the students of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. Students will be involved at all stages of aircraft development - from design to creation and flight on the basis of the Aerospace Engineering Center. According to forecasts, a year and a half or two years will pass from the start of work to the launch of an aircraft.
«There is a willingness to create at Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute a light single-seat student plane that will be certified, have flying practice, and most importantly, students will do it. The company will provide assistance in technology, in production, which will be carried out on their equipment and partially on their territory, assistance in materials, support, certification, operation. The students will design, develop and assemble the aircraft at Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute at the Institute of Aerospace Technology», – notes the director of IAT Ivan Korobko.
The company's priority is to establish a youth design studio where enthusiastic students will be able to demonstrate their abilities and fantasy to the full as now there is a catastrophic lack of such initiatives in the field. Yuri Yakovlev, Chief Designer of Aeropract, created light aircraft himself during his student years.
«We think this agreement is the beginning of a long way. It hasn't happened in our country for a long time. Students can develop anything they are interested in. We do not push away people who have a great desire to work in aviation. With this cooperation, we will try to expand opportunities. Probably someone would like to create a business similar to ours, and we will help them to do that», – says Yuri Yakovlev.
Aeropract's specialists include many graduates of the Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. Igor Luchko, who graduated from the university in 2018, has been working at the company since the 5th year. Now he is a design engineer at Aeropract. It was Luchko who was one of the initiators of cooperation with Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute and took direct part in creation of a student aircraft.
«For me, this cooperation is a hope for the future generation. I wanted to do small aircraft since high school, so the small size allows me to do everything including develop parts, programs, flight tests. An engineer in a small company has to embody many separate branches as durability, aerodynamics, knowledge of technology, design and so on.», – says Igor Luchko.
Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute and Aeropract believe in the success of the common project and hope that cooperation will not be limited to one aircraft.